Vegetable oil quenchants: a review

摘要

For thousands of years, vegetable oils have been used as cooling media to heat treat metals. However, the motivation for employing quenchants formulated with biodegradable, non-toxic and renewable base stocks has seen significant increase due to the environmental appeal to replace petroleum based quenchants. This paper presents an overview of the main aspects and characteristics of vegetable oils that directly influence their commercial application such as structure, classification, biodegradability and toxicity, quenching properties, oxidation and inhibition, and wetting. Further, some applications of vegetable oils as quenchants will be discussed here.